


The Right Love

by SpoonDance



Category: Coronation Street
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-16
Updated: 2015-06-16
Packaged: 2018-04-04 15:36:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4143180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpoonDance/pseuds/SpoonDance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maddie finds an old camera of Sophie's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Right Love

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from a great anon: I wonder how Maddie would react if she found an old camera with loads of pictures and memories from when Sophie and Sian were still together... 
> 
> Took forever for some reason but here it is!

The dust was really the most annoying part of all this. It was everywhere and made her eyes itch and her skin crawl and she grumbled to herself as she pulled another box to the center of the living room to open.

Maddie was doing as Sophie had asked last night, and was sorting through the boxes that had been stored at No. 4 for ages she guessed. Sally had evidently griped and hinted at getting the boxes out. And really, she had no idea what of this stuff Sophie wanted to keep and get rid of but she had just been told to 'sort through, like group things together.' Group things together? This was all sorts of stuff, how was she suppose to group them together? But she wanted Soph to come home and have less to do. And maybe it had a little something to do with the row they had had last night after said request was made. She didn't mean to, but Maddie complained and then Sophie got fed up. And she felt bad because Sophie had a point, she sorta slacked in the housework department and so there she sat. Amidst the dust and foreign objects.

"What the..." She pulled out a leather jacket she really couldn't see Sophie wearing and crinkled her nose at it. Sure Sophie would look fit in anything(and she wouldn't mind seeing her in leather), but this just didn't seem to suit her. She preferred how Soph dressed now. She'd seen some photos and wondered if it was Soph's sister, Rosie's. She tossed the garment aside to a pile of other clothing.

Papers in one pile, bracelets and keychains in another, clothes, what looked like schooling stuff, weird knick knacks. She didn’t know what she was doing but figured the effort would be good enough. Rummaging through the box some more, she found a camera. A nice looking camera. How the hell did Soph manage to misplace what seemed to be a perfectly good camera? She found a cord in the same box and decided to plug it in to charge it, as it was dead. She left it as she moved onto the next box.

A while later, after another box “sorted” through, Maddie remembered the camera and decided she deserved a break. She picked up the camera and pressed the power button as she dropped down onto the couch. A smile slipped across her lips as she tried to guess what was on the device. Did Soph try her hand at photography before tossing it aside? Was it filled with embarrassing selfies?

The screen flickered on and some navigating and she had the first image filling the field.

Her smile faltered.

Tapping through, her heart whimpered.

 

**.o.o.o.**

 

Sophie walked in and shrugged off her jacket, definitely ready to be home and relax with her girlfriend. When she walked into the living room, she grinned.

“Thanks for getting started on this for me, babe.” She walked up behind the couch where Maddie sat looking at something. Pressing a kiss to her girl’s temple she turned to what she was so engrossed in since she hadn’t gotten a response from her. “What you got there?”

Maddie shifted and turned the screen of a camera towards her. She instantly recognized the device as the one she constantly used with Sian. Clearly, as a picture of the two grinning like idiots show from the screen. Sophie looked back to Maddie who just kept staring; her face blank but Sophie saw the thoughts whirling in her head.

Sophie hadn’t felt wary about talking about Sian with Maddie for some time now. Not that it came up a lot, but when it did she didn’t shy away. Because it was part of her past, because she knew Maddie wasn’t hurt by talk of them, because she felt beyond secure in her relationship with Maddie. So she felt no guilt about this being found but she was worried about Maddie’s silence. This was new.

So she tried to write it off, to lighten whatever worries her girl was going through. “Oh! Yous found my old camera. Bet there’s plenty of embarrassin’ pictures on there, huh?” When Maddie shrugged without a word, Sophie was truly concerned. She moved to walk around the couch and sit next to the girl. “Maddie? What’s wrong?”

She looked far away. Or maybe too stuck in a now. Sophie reached out and rested a hand on Maddie’s thigh. “Mads?” That seemed to pull her back as her eyes turned back to her, blinking, looking as if she had just been in a daze.

“Uh, sorry.” The camera lowered to her lap. “Just lost in thought I guess.” Eyes turned away again and Sophie wasn’t having it.

“‘Bout what?” Maddie shrugged again. “Come on, talk to me, Maddie.”

Maddie sighed. “You just look so happy in all these photos.”

“Okay…” Maddie knew she’d been happy. She had loved Sian. What was the change now?

Maddie looked down, btiting her lip. “I don’t know, you’re just always grinnin’ so big you look like your face’s gonna split in half or something.”

Sophie let out a little smile at her description but could tell Maddie was bothered by it so let it fade. “And? Maddie, you know about our relationship. Why’s this bothering ya so much?”

She watched Maddie drop her head back against the couch in frustration before lifting back up and looking to her. “Just look.” She handed the camera to her and Sophie took it was a confused look.

But she did as requested and started going through the images. Picture after picture of her and Sian. Some of her family, some of places or parties, but mostly them. Smiling bright into the camera. Making faces. Laughing. Kisses to cheeks and lips and hugs from behind. All of this she knew. She wasn’t surprised by it. But maybe Maddie just took actually seeing them together hard?

“Yeah?” Maddie just kept watching her, waiting. “Maddie, we were together and in love. We took loads of pictures. But this,” she waved the camera about. “it doesn’t mean nothing about us. This is in the past.”

Maddie huffed. “It’s not about you being with her.” And Sophie was seriously confused now but as she was about to speak, Maddie continued. “It’s about how happy you look. Not the both of you. Just looking at you, look how completely happy you look. You’ve always got this huge grin on your face. In every single photo.” Maddie paused as if Sophie would get it. She didn’t. “You’re not the same in our pictures.”

That hit. Sophie’s brows rose in surprise. She knew for a fact that she was beyond happy and in love with Maddie. More so than she was with Sian because this was different. They were different. And she adored the pictures they took together. Glancing down at the screen again, she tried to understand the difference between these photos from her past to the ones from her present she had filling up her phone. Flicking through some.

It clicked.

And she smiled. Looking back up, she guessed Maddie thought the smile was a fond remembrance cause it seemed to affect the girl; made her look more unsure and Sophie could almost see the locking up start. And she wasn’t going to let that get too far.

“Maddie, here. Look.” She shuffled closer and held the camera out again in front of her to see, showing the images. “What do you notice?”

Maddie sighed, turning her eyes from the camera and to Sophie. “I already looked plenty, Soph. I told you, I notice you being all sunshiney and happy.”

Sophie rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone. She smiled at her phone background, a picture of them: Maddie laughing as she looks at Sophie, Sophie smirking watching her - she doesn’t remember what she had said but she loved the photo. Shaking herself, she got back to her task and opened up her camera roll. She turned this screen to Maddie.

“Now, what do you notice in these?” She started swiping through.

She felt Maddie’s shoulders slump a bit. Scanning her face, it seemed a mix of love and defeat played there.

“Smaller smiles.”

Sophie shook her head at her girlfriend. “Maddie. Look at how I’m looking at you.”

Maddie’s eyes flickered to her puzzled but turned back. When she didn’t say anything, Sophie spoke again. “In most of our pictures, except when we was like ‘let’s take a “couple’s photo”’ or being goofs for the camera. In most of our photos I’m looking at you. And you’re looking at me.” Maddie’s eyes slid back to hers. “In those,” she gestures to the camera. “We’re just looking into the camera. Yeah, we were happy and all that. But in our pictures, I can’t help but just look at you.”

Maddie looked back to the photos, seemingly surprised by this explanation and Sophie just smiled softly at her. “See?” She stopped at a photo. “You see that look? That’s an ‘I’m so in love and this person is everything to me’ look.”

“I-” Maddie paused. Looked back to her. Eyes searching. “Really?”

“You really are thick sometimes, Mads, “ she laughed. “We’re so in love that we just take photos of us being us. We’re not smiling for the camera, we’re smiling for each other. This is just us.” Sophie indicated the photo again. It was that simple to her. “I’m not gonna downplay my relationship with Sian. I loved her. She was my first love and she’ll always have a special place in my heart and I may regret how it ended, but it did. I was all doey-eyed and all smitten and young love and all. With you, it’s a more... understood love, I guess? I know more now. ‘Bout life and love and all, and yeah, I’ve still got more to learn but I know that I do. And I know I want to learn them with you.”

Maddie gulped and Sophie saw the change, the ease and the slight smile. She smiled back, her gentle and ‘this is my Maddie’ smile.

Maddie glance away again. “You’re my first love.” Sophie’s head tilted adoringly as Maddie looked back to her. “First love’s end right? What does that mean for… us?” That nervous lip bite a again.

She lifted her hand to Maddie’s chin, thumb smoothing over the caught lip to ease it.

“First loves don’t have to end.” Sophie smiled gently again, truth being the only thing she could think. “I don’t think of this being your first love or my great love. I think of it as the right love.”

Maddie’s breath hitched and she saw the softness in her eyes. The look reminding her of the first time Maddie told her she loved her. “So I love you right?” Maddie teased, but she heard the calm in her words. She was back to being her Maddie, easily in love.

“Yeah. Yeah you do.” And she pulled her girl forward, giving her a kiss to tell her how silly she had been and how right their love was.


End file.
